An electronic endoscopic apparatus is widely used for medical care and examination of a duodenum, a rectum, a large intestine, an oesophagus, ears, a nose, bladders, etc., of a human organism.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional electronic endoscopic apparatus comprising an end tip portion 3A for housing an optical system such as a solid imaging element which is a charge coupled device (CCD), a curved end portion 3B moved upward, downward, rightward and leftward by the manual operation of an operator, a hand operating portion 1 disposed at the rear end of the endoscopic apparatus, and a connecting portion 2 for optically and electrically connecting these end portions 3A and 3B to the hand operating portion 1.
In the hand operating portion 1, there are disposed a knob for adjusting the angle of the curved end portion 3B, and a plurality of buttons for supplying air and water, and sucking the used air and water to clean a lens disposed in the end tip portion 3A.
Accordingly, an operator normally grips the operating portion 1 by his left hand, and operates the buttons by his index and middle fingers, and performs an orientation for a patient and operates the connecting portion 2 by his right hand.
In the conventional electronic apparatus mentioned above, a region of interest (ROI) is set by CCD and is displayed on a television monitor, and an operator examines and treats a patient while observing the ROI. The set ROI must be changed by a means for changing the ROI disposed on a separate operation table. However, since the operator uses both his right and left hands as mentioned above, it is impossible for the operator to perform the operation for changing the ROI at the real time.
In the fields using X ray, CT scanning, and nuclear medical science, it is well known that the ROI is set on a monitor screen and the set ROI is enlarged or reduced in size and thereafter an image processing is performed in the ROI. However, such operations are performed by a means for setting the ROI such as a joystick, a track ball, a mouse, etc., and such ROI setting means is disposed in an operation table for example and accumulated data are read out later and are displayed on a monitor and the treatment is performed with respect to the displayed image so that the ROI is not set at the real time.
It is often necessary to enlarge a specified portion of the ROI on the monitor screen in the examination and treatment of the patient using an electronic endoscopic apparatus. Such an operation cannot be performed at the real time in the conventional electronic endoscopic apparatus.